Doctor flabbergasted' by neck stabbings' minimal damage

Macomb Daily staff photo by David Dalton
Evidence technician Sharon Furno of the Macomb County Sheriff’s Office on Thursday holds one of the knives removed from the neck of Joanne Eisenhardt at the trial of accused murderer Joseph Reiner.

An doctor who treated a 69-year-old woman who arrived in an emergency room with two knives plunged deep into her neck said he was “flabbergasted” no major organs were damaged.

Dr. James Giliberto, a surgeon at McLaren Macomb hospital, testified Thursday in the trial of accused murderer Joseph Reiner that both knives cut through soft tissue but avoided important parts of Joanne Eisenhardt’s neck, which he called a “busy place,” quoting an old professor. One knife “touched” but didn’t penetrate one of her carotid arteries, which supply the brain with blood.

“There was surprisingly minimal physical damage,” Giliberto said on the stand in Macomb County Circuit Court. “It was a very unusual injury suffered by the patient.”

Eisenhardt arrived at the Mount Clemens hospital after she was stabbed with two kitchen knives about 10 a.m. Feb. 23, 2011 in her Macomb Township home, by an assailant during a home invasion. She initially survived but died seven months later from what prosecutors say were complications from the wounds.

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Prosecutors say that Reiner was the one who committed the heinous act and fled in a stolen car to New Jersey, where he engaged police in a high-speed chase that ended with his arrest three days after the incident in New York.

Giliberto said he contacted another doctor, James Johnson, to assist him in removing the knives. One knife near her chin, “we simply pulled out,” because it was in a safe area.

The second, lower knife that touched the artery “was much more precarious, in our opinion,” he said, because removing it could have caused massive bleeding.

“With every heartbeat, we could see the knife handle reverberating,” he said.

One of the doctors cut an incision along the knife blade for access to control bleeding.

“We simply pulled it out, gently,” he said, with good results.

Giliberto testified following opening statements in which Reiner’s attorney, Timothy Barkovic, contended his client could not have committed the crime because a credit union receipt shows he was several miles away at the time, and witnesses misidentified him.

Eisenhardt called 911 at 10:12 a.m. Feb. 23, 2011, from her Macomb Township home. That’s the same time a receipt from the Central Macomb Community Credit on Gratiot Avenue was received by a man who had picked up Reiner walking along Fairchild and drove him to 15 Mile and Gratiot Avenue. Reiner took a bus to Eastpointe, prosecutors say.

“Joseph Reiner could not have been in Miss Eisenhardt’s home at the time,” he was at the credit union, he said. “How could on person be in two places at the same time?”

Reiner, 28, who was on parole for a home invasion, is charged with felony murder and home invasion. His trial is expected to last through the end of next week.

Barkovic protested Cataldo telling jurors about Reiner stealing the car from a Grosse Pointe home and fleeing Michigan.

“He (Cataldo) wants you to conclude that Mr. Reiner is a bad guy and because he did bad stuff in the past he must have done this,” Barkovic said.

Reiner previously displayed two devil horn tattoos on his forehead he received while in the county jail, but for the trial they are hidden by makeup.

The prosecution will present two witnesses who identified Reiner as the man they separately saw near Eisenhardt’s home at 22 Mile and Fairchild roads around the time of the incident.

But Barkovic tried to undermine their upcoming testimony. He noted they claim Reiner was wearing a dark coat, while Eisenhardt said her assailant donned a blue jean jacket. Also, two neighbors of Eisenhardt will say they saw a male clad in a blue jean jacket showing “strange” behavior several times over several weeks before the incident.

Reiner was identified by an Eastpointe pawn shop owner as the man who sold him two or three pieces of costume jewelry for $2, Cataldo said. The store owner, Hadrian Lewandowski, died of natural causes three months after the incident, but Maceroni will allow the jury to hear his statements to police through officers’ testimony.

Barkovic protested, saying they will slant Lewandowski’s statements against his client.

Barkovic questioned the prosecution’s contention that Eisenhardt died from wounds suffered in the stabbing. He said county Medical Examiner Daniel Spitz will testify that Eisenhardt “fully recovered” from her wounds.

He noted that Eisenhardt suffered from several other health conditions — diabetes, high-blood pressure and kidney and respiratory problems — that led to her death. She suffered multiple heart attacks.

But Cataldo’s description of Spitz’s upcoming testimony was polar opposite. He said Spitz will say that “but for” Reiner’s attack, Eisenhardt would be alive today. The assault’s physical and emotional impact took a toll on her, he said.

About the Author

My beat is the courts of Macomb County and general assignment.
Read more of Jameson Cook's court coverage on his blog http://courthousedish.blogspot.com/ Reach the author at jamie.cook@macombdaily.com
or follow Jameson on Twitter: @jamesoncook.